Guest Article: The Applications of Gamification in EdTech

The Applications of Gamification in EdTech

This is a brief article looking at some examples of gamification within education technology. It was written and submitted by Matt Jones of Tutora.

Gamification has changed the ways in which businesses can connect and engage with their customers, and Education is the perfect sector to implement this strategy. We can all remember being kids, all we ever wanted to do was to play games and have fun. Now, thanks to the applications of gamification, various industries have combined the aspects of fun and learning together.

Possibly one of the best uses of gamification that has ever been used by any company, would be McDonald’s Monopoly. When we see the adverts telling us it’s starting up again soon, we immediately get excited. Whether you eat at McDonald’s regularly or not, when the monopoly is on, we all rush in a buy as many large meals as possible to collect the stickers and win prizes.

Applying a competition/game aspect to a business is the perfect way to get audiences engaged, everyone loves a fun game. It can also help keep students more attentive during long school days. Adding gamification to an educational tool is a great way to encourage creative thinking, multitasking and additional learning.

Gamification in Education

Matific is a great example of gamification in EdTech. Based around Mathematics, it has a wide range of games that students can play to help further their Maths education. It takes learning and makes it fun, which helps children stay more focused on what they’re doing. It can also be more rewarding for the children using these sites, as they can visibly see when they have completed a certain section or learnt something new.

Gamification has become increasingly popular for Language learning applications. These apps enable learners to develop their understanding of new languages in a fun, interactive way. Applying what you have recently learnt in the practical form of a game helps cement a new language more than simply repeating words or phrases over and over. Apps can be anything from filling in the missing word in a sentence, to selecting the correct picture for a given word all the way to writing complete sentences before a timer runs down.

Attention Spans

As technology improves, it’s becoming more and more difficult to get children to pay attention. They’re too busy looking on social media sites or texting their friends, that whatever you say to them tends to go in one ear and out of the other. At school, teachers may ban the use of mobile phones to try and help keep attention spans up, but at home it can be a lot harder to implement this. Telling a child they can’t use their phone for 2 hours while they do homework/revise, tends to end up with an argument.

This is where gamification really comes into its strength. With websites and apps integrating gamification it allows the use of technology while providing learning. Keeping the child interested while the education continues.

It’s not just children that gamification benefits however, as adults can gain a lot from it too. Whether it’s learning a language as mentioned above or even a musical instrument, gamification makes learning fun for people of all ages. Especially when you turn it into a competition.

Some companies introduce scoring systems into their gamification, letting you have competitions with friends or family to see who can be the winner.

An awesome example of this is Kahoot, it allows you to create your own learning games and then share them with others to play, you can even have podiums now, giving even more of a competition aspect to your game. These ‘competition’ based learning games can be great for both teachers in schools and also families at home.

Create your own learning game, share it with all your family and then see who can be the top of the leaderboard, it’s a great way to help keep your kids engaged with learning.

Thanks to Matt for his contribution. Check out the Tutora website for a trusted way to find a tutor in the UK.